How’s The Real Estate Market?

Quite often when either someone finds out I’m a REALTOR® or they already know me and we get involved in a general conversation, I get asked “How’s the market?”. This might seem like a simple question, and on some level it is, however the answer is more involved. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on your perspective) many real estate professionals will respond with a simple “Good” or “Bad”. And typically that’s the answer most people are looking for. But I’m not most people. We can do better.

Why It Is Not a Simple Question?

Although the question “How is the market” is a simple question on the surface, for me to answer the question accurately I need to know more about the person asking the question. Everyone has different goals, experience, perspectives and motivations for asking that question as well as a different definition for “Good” or “Bad”. What is good for one person can be bad for another. This is true in life but absolutely critical in investing. The answer to this question can be (and many times is) very different depending on the person asking it. As a simple example, is the person asking about the market looking to buy or sell a house?. This one little detail can change my response from “Great!” to “Terrible!”. If I assume I know how the person defines “Good Market” and“Bad Market” or that I know what they are looking to do, then I might give them misinformation which could result in them making poor financial decisions. Here are some examples of possible motivation for asking “How’s the market?”: